Live your life haiku
After doing haiku's for a year, I finally was like, "Yo... what if the magnets aren't sticking to the fridge? What if I put them somewhere else?!" If early man counted on someone like me to figure out fire, it probably would have taken way too long. This week's haiku is just laid out on my hand. Originally I wanted to do something Valentiney but that was last week's haiku. The message is a bit like a Hallmark Card but I'm happy with it. It's one of those things you realize as you get older and hey, if you're not going to take advantage of your life today, no one is going to do it for you tomorrow.
This past weekend I made some pork shoulder. It was a five and a half pound pork shoulder, and I did 300 degrees for about five hours. The meat was tender but without a true smoker and a backyard, it will lack the smokey flavor. When I roasted the meat, I threw some smoked bacon on top of it, but really... four strips of bacon vs five pounds of pork shoulder. No contest. I mostly did it to help with moisture but it probably didn't do anything except give me super crispy bacon after four hours. Seriously folks, do your bacon in the oven, it will be amazing and crunchy.
As with the norm with the haiku post, I'm going to take some time to get off of the subject for a minute. Does anyone remember when our mayor Bloomy tried to get fruit carts on the streets of NY? Last year the idea was floated throughout the media and I never heard much about the follow up. Also haven't seen any fruit carts, so they probably haven't started the plan yet.
Now comes the word that the Manhattan borough president wants to change zoning and taxing rules to favor farmers market and/or super markets that sell stuff that's within 100 or 200 miles of the city. You can read about it here. This sounds like half of a great idea. Zoning and taxing rules would definitely help. If they really wanted to make people eat their fruits and vegetables though, they should tax bacon and oreos. People aren't going to stop eating bacon and oreos but it's going to be funny if you could make oreos more expensive per pound than some portabello mushrooms. That'll really screw with your decision making at the market. If you're in Mike Bloomberg's shoes, what would you do to make people eat better?
(I invite you to follow me on Twitter so you can get more of my non-sense in another medium.)
If you make fruits and vegetables cheap and easily accessible, people might eat more of it. Then again, some people who grow up not eating fruits and vegetable probably just don't care, because they don't have the habit of eating fruits and vegetable. It seems that fruit vendors stopped setting up shop outside during the cold winter months.
I like this haiku
Ang
February 10, 2009 11:13 pm
Did you cover the pork while roasting? or was it roasted uncovered? I want to do a shoulder roast too but I'm kinda scared lol Did you try liquid smoke?
wonders
February 11, 2009 1:05 pm
@Ang,
You bring up a good point that some people might not care. Not growing up with a food certainly alters one's perception of it. I think people respond to incentives though.
@wonders,
Actually, the cover was off this time. Shoulder roasts are a lot of fun but it's never as fork tender soft as I imagine it to be. That's the main problem. I can deal with no smokiness if it's ubersoft, but it's hardly ever like that. It's just soft but not super soft. And no, I forgot about liquid smoke! Good idea for next time!
Danny
February 12, 2009 12:03 pm
Let me ask you...
Did you take a picture of the pork shoulder?
and
How many fingers do koalas have?
Deli
February 14, 2009 12:56 am
I grew up with only bacon from an oven. I wasn't aware of frying bacon until later on in life and bacon from an oven is better.
Blondie
February 14, 2009 2:59 pm
@Deli,
Non, did not take a picture of the pork shoulder :P I was lazy and hungry! And I have to go figure out the koala fingers thing...
@Blondie,
Really? Wow, I've mostly seen bacon from a pan. Or sometimes from a griddle at a diner type of place. They are quite delicious coming from an oven, although I think it really helps if you have a rack thingy so it doesn't sit in the fat.
Danny
February 15, 2009 12:38 am